Suggests THF write a paper on violets. Asa Gray, once a sceptic, now declares he is convinced whole structure of a flower is adapted for a cross with another individual.

+

Urges THF not to give up Pangenesis lightly. "It has thrown light on my mind in regard [to] a great series of complex phenomena."

Transcription

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Oct 29th

My dear Mr Farrer

I had seen your paper in the Annals & was proud of my
share in getting you to publish it, but I am obliged for the
copy which you have sent me. I know pretty well the
structure of the common Violet, but have never seen V.
cornuta, so do not understand what part is degraded in the
common species.— You might work this up into another
paper, & let it be accompanied by a wood cut.

My vanity was much pleased at the very elegant German
compliment which you paid me in your introductory remarks.
By the way, as we are in the same boat, I may mention that
Prof. Asa Gray (a first-rate Botanist) who used formerly
often to throw difficulties about crossing in my way, now
spontaneously declares, he hardly ever looks at a flower
without feeling convinced that its whole structure is
adapted for a cross with another individual.

Pangenesis has very few friends, so let me beg you not to
give it up lightly. It may be foolish parental affection,
but it has thrown a flood of light on my mind in regard a
great series of complex phenomena.—

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and
the letter from T. H. Farrer, 26 October 1868.

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f2 6435.f2

See letter from T. H. Farrer, 26 October 1868. There is an
annotated copy of Farrer 1868 in CD's collection of unbound journals
in the Darwin Library--CUL; no separate offprint has been found in
the Darwin Archive--CUL.

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f3 6435.f3

See the letter from T. H. Farrer, 26 October 1868, for his comments
on violets. CD had observed violets for some time, and was
particularly interested in the cleistogamic flowers; see, for example,
Correspondence vol. 11, letter to Daniel Oliver, 28 [November 1863]
and n. 5.

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f4 6435.f4

Farrer ended his introduction to Farrer 1868 by complimenting CD's
writings, which he believed well illustrated `the axiom of the great
German poet and observer— ``Was fruchtbar ist, allein ist wahr'''
(What is fruitful, that alone is true). The quotation is from the
sixth verse of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem `Vermächtnis'
(Legacy; Goethe 1964, 1: 370).

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f5 6435.f5

Asa and Jane Loring Gray had been staying at Down House since
24 October (see letter to John Tyndall, 20 October 1868 and n. 1). For an
example of Gray's earlier differences with CD on the role of crossing,
see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from Asa Gray, 7 July 1857.